Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Scapegracers

For my first book out of a slump and first review on StoryGraph, Scapegracers was a magical return to the joys of reading. It’s best parts are found in its interesting cast of ladies and their dynamics, centering around the strength of female friendship. The dialogue between our main cast was lighthearted and entertaining, and I appreciated the platonic touching that was featured frequently.

As for it’s biggest flaw, it held some very noticeable pacing issues. The story itself felt rather rushed and condensed at times when there seemed to be room for further embellishment or even just allowing a bit more in-book time to pass before going into the next event. I felt there were several moments I was waiting for the protagonist to catch her breath in between beats of action that didn’t necessarily ever come. The latter quarter of the book in particular sped by in a hurricane, which was a bit jarring considering the slow opening.

But all in all I smiled constantly with this read and was particularly joyed to see such casual queer representation and conversations thrown around without fanfare. I’ve already preordered the second book and eagerly await it’s release, I can’t wait to see how the author will grow in their later works.

small note: I really have to minus points for the betrayal. I understood that the plot was set in that direction from the beginning , but it sucks to see so many wlw romances or potential romances be tragic in some form or another.

Content Warnings

frantic_vampire's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Holy crap, The Scapegracers was such a good book! I was a little unsure going into it, but it grabbed my attention almost immediately. It’s got a gritty neon hazed weirdness to it, reminiscent of teen horror movies. And weirdness is something that I absolutely love in a book.

I loved Sideways and the rest of this magical girl gang! Daisy is absolutely unhinged and I loved that about her. Yates is the sweetest person ever and she deserves all the hugs she could ever want. Jing isn’t quite what I expected. She’s a little cold, but loves her friends and would do literally anything for them. And Sideways... damn, I really loved her. She’s so freaking relatable and she’s a huge bundle of contradictions. She’s a social outcast, she doesn’t take shit from anyone and will start a fight, she’s soft and sweet, she’s anxious. And she will do anything for her new friends. I just can’t get enough of these girls and their magic!

Another thing that I loved about this book was that Sideways’ parents were actually involved in her life. Their interactions were so loving and sweet. They gave me hope for other YA books to actually have good parental figures.

If I’m being honest, I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like about this book. It was such a fun ride all the way through. I loved the blatant lesbian rep, the sapphic rep, the queer rep, the bisexual rep, the gay rep. All of it was so nice to see explicitly stated and not have it floating in some nebulous “are they, aren’t they” space. The Scapegracers is getting a solid four and a half stars from me and I can’t wait for the next book!

Content Warnings

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

ramunepocky's review against another edition

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

OH MY GOD I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH AND IM SO SO SO HAPPY ABOUT IT
THE MAGIC !!! THE FOUND FAMILY !!! THEIR COVEN !!! MR SCRATCH !!! YATES !!! SIDEWAYS !!! JING !!! DAISY !!! I LOVE THEM ALL SO SO SO MUCH
I LIKED HOW IT HAD A TOUCH OF LIKE DARKNESS AND EERIENESS TOO, IM SO HYPED TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, IMPATIENT FOR THE SCRATCH DAUGHTER

Content Warnings